Kimberly-Clark has decided not to sell its European division after all. The offer they received for the branch which includes the popular toilet paper brand Scottex was considerably lower than the expected one billion euros.
Savings
There were two interested parties for the sale: Centerbridge Partners and a Goldman-Sachs Capital Partners syndicate. An inside source claims that the latter group had initially offered 1.2 billion euros, but a number of factors (including the difficult Brexit proceedings) ultimately led to a severely lower bid of about 800 million euros. Kimberly-Clark has refused to comment on these numbers.
The American company decided to put the division on sale this past summer as part of a large-scale savings plan. The European branch includes brands such as Andrex (UK and Ireland), Hakle (Austria and Switzerland) and Scottex (Belgium, Italy and Spain). Like many companies, Kimberly-Clark is struggling with the rapidly changing economy characterised by the rise of e-commerce, budget brands, private labels and changing habits. By 2021, the concern intends to save 1.75 billion euros through a number of measures and reorganisations.
